HALL COUNTY, Ga. — One of the sheriffs whom the governor appointed to investigate Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch after his DUI arrest says the committee plans to hold the sheriff accountable, if warranted. The panel most likely will listen to dispatch calls from the day deputies confronted the sheriff.
Channel 2’s Tom Jones listened to the calls where deputies and dispatchers seemed not to want to say too much over the air about who they had stopped and why.
When deputies realized it was Sheriff Couch weaving in and out of traffic, the chief deputy called into dispatch.
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Immediately, something seemed to have distracted the deputy.
“Hall County dispatch,” the dispatcher said.
“Yeah, this 302,” the chief deputy said.
“Hey,” the dispatchers responded.
“Don’t walk away. Lean against the truck,” the deputy said to someone on scene.
The deputy initially seemed hesitant to say who he stopped.
“And what’s it for?” the dispatcher asked.
“DUI,” the deputy explained on the call.
“You got a car or a person? Anything else I should log for the call?”
“Um. Well, I’m out with the sheriff,” the deputy replied.
At one point, a dispatcher acknowledged she didn’t want to discuss the specifics of the case.
“Uh. I don’t have that information to give right now over the phone. But you can, um, that, it’s, yeah.” She then giggles.
Another deputy said he was confused because dispatch was providing so little information.
“So, somebody’s drunk at the sheriff’s house? Gotcha,” the deputy said.
“Correct,” the dispatcher responded.
The Georgia State Patrol was requested to come to the scene to investigate the DUI. A trooper arrived at Couch’s home and said he smelled of alcohol on him.
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Couch told the trooper he had been drinking an alcoholic beverage called Four Loko since 6 a.m.
The trooper found two open 24-ounce alcoholic beverages called Bahama Mama in Couch’s county car.
Gov. Brian Kemp has now appointed Attorney General Chris Carr, Greene County Sheriff Donnie Harrison and Glasscock Sheriff Jeremy Kelley to a committee to investigate the incident.
Kelley told Jones the committee will do its job.
“We are going to get to the bottom of what the situation is,” Kelley said.
Kelley said these are serious allegations.
“We’ll investigate it through documents and talking to individuals involved in it,” he said.
Sheriffs Kelley and Harrison say they didn’t know what the next step in the process was at this point, and they said they hadn’t heard from anyone about when they would meet.
The committee has 30 days to make their recommendation to the governor. Then he can do nothing, suspend the sheriff or start the process for his removal.
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